Britain May Increase Recommendations for Healthy Alcohol Consumption

The Commons Science and Technology Committee in the United Kingdom is considering increasing its guidelines for healthy alcohol consumption, which currently state men shouldn’t routinely drink more than four units of alcohol a day — about two pints of beer — and women should limit themselves to three units — a large glass of wine.

Doctors have cast doubts on the recommendations, put in place by the Royal College of Physicians in 1987.

Richard Smith, a member of that group and the former editor of the British Medical Journal, admitted a lack of evidence regarding how much alcohol poses a health risk and said that the numbers suggested were “plucked out of the air.”

Many other countries have guidelines permitting greater alcohol consumption than the UK, and doctors will consider them when making the new recommendations.